# widow

/ˈwɪdoʊ/ (US) · /wˈɪdəʊ/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/widow
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. woman whose husband died

noun · CEFR B1

a woman whose husband has died and who has not married again.

For teachers: a woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not remarried.

- The elderly widow lived alone in the house where she and her husband had spent forty years.
- After becoming a widow in her early thirties, she devoted her energy to managing the family estate and ensuring her children's education.

### 2. partner of someone often away

noun · CEFR C1 · Humorous · Informal

you use this to describe someone whose partner is always busy with a hobby or job.

For teachers: a person whose spouse is frequently absent due to a specific occupation or hobby, often used in compounds like 'golf widow'.

- During the football season, she joked that she was a 'football widow' because her husband was always at the stadium.
- He described himself as a 'work widow' during the months his partner was traveling across the country for the political campaign.

Usage: Usually appears as the second part of a compound noun.

Teaching tip: This is often used sarcastically to complain about a partner's time-consuming interests.

### 3. typography

noun · CEFR C2 · Technical

a single word or short line of text that appears alone at the top of a new page.

For teachers: a single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from the rest of the text by a page or column break.

- The editor asked me to fix the widow at the top of page five to make the layout look better.
- Professional typesetters adjust character spacing and line breaks to eliminate widows and orphans, ensuring a clean visual flow across the spread.

Usage: Often discussed alongside 'orphans' in design contexts.

### 4. venomous spider

noun · CEFR B2

a type of poisonous spider, often called a 'black widow'.

For teachers: any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus, known for the female's tendency to eat the male after mating.

- Be careful when cleaning the garage, as a black widow might be hiding in the dark corners.
- The researcher studied the neurotoxic venom of the Australian redback, a member of the widow family of spiders.

### 5. to make someone a widow

verb · CEFR C1 · Literary

to cause someone's husband or wife to die.

For teachers: to cause the death of someone's spouse, thereby making them a widow or widower.

- The war widowed many young women in the village.
- The mining disaster widowed dozens of women in the small community, leaving them to raise their families without a primary breadwinner.

Usage: Almost always used in the passive voice or as a past participle.

## Examples

- She became a widow at the age of forty.
- During the long football season, she joked that she was a football widow because her husband was always at the stadium.
- The young widow managed the estate with a level of financial acumen that surprised the traditional lawyers who had expected her to sell the property immediately.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.